The Nameless Assistant
by anonymous56789
Summary: You didn't know why you had accepted this job. Maybe it was simply for the chance to stand in the shadow of a great mind like Dr. Vegapunk. Maybe you were insane, but you had chosen it and there was no going back now.


You're waiting. You've forgotten what time you originally came in but never the less you're still here. The doctor hasn't acknowledged your presence since you walked in so here you are, standing. You've been motionless for so long your legs have started to cramp but still you wait. It is a test of wills. Dr. Vegapunk has not left the lab for food, water, rest, or other bodily functions in a week. At least it was a week when you first walked in. Now that you've been here so long you aren't quite sure what the total amount of time is. The bone saw turns on and you easily smother a sigh. The lab is dark and cold except for the bright lights that illuminate the cadaver on the dissecting table. It's another human; a devil fruit user that the government has decided would benefit them. You wonder if it will ever get tiresome… the first incision of a scalpel into a specimen, human or otherwise; the thrill that comes as you gently place organs into their properly labeled containers.

Mentally shaking off the thought you turn back to Vegapunk. He's an absurdly young man for all the genius he possesses. No one in this generation, let alone a 23 year old, should carry the kind of knowledge he does. His brilliance is of such renown that you sometimes wonder if he's eaten a devil fruit… the smart smart fruit, if such a thing even exists. You stop yourself from shifting your weight. Any movement beyond breathing is an admittance of defeat and will set you back days. No matter how oblivious the doctor looks, you've learned from experience that he takes in every movement and each shift is seen as weakness. You swallow another sigh. It's been years since you were assigned to the doctor's team of scientists. Your name is still as much a mystery to your colleges as it was the first day you arrived. No one here has a name. The only one that matters is the doctor's and when it is said it's breathed out in reverence… Dr. Vegapunk… It's not that you aren't smart, a genius even. It's simply that you and your colleges are not the doctor. So how could your names matter? The answer is they couldn't.

You've been Dr. Vegapunk's assistant for a few months and you know how to confront him… The best way is to not… You simply wait. When the doctor entered his lab and neglects all in the world but his experiments you simply enter the lab and wait. Knowing that despite your best statue impersonation the doctor eventually breaks and addresses you, opening up the way for you to persuade him to take care of a few things regarding his health. Pushing, arguing, and obnoxious behavior would get you nowhere but the operating table and the image of the doctor's last assistant is still fresh in your mind. The poor young man had spoken a decibel over a whisper and the doctor had shown no mercy. So far this method had seemed to work. Sometimes you did leave before the doctor acknowledged you but times like that were becoming rarer occurrences for you.

Only once had the doctor demanded your immediate removal but the hasty transfer had only lasted a ½ day before he rescinded his earlier demand. You tensed as you see the doctor slightly turn his head your way. "Why are you here?" A gruff voice asks and you keep your face blank. "I'm here as a reminder, sir." The doctor scoffs, "As if I need to be reminded of anything. Get out, you're disturbing me." You just wait, knowing that you simply need to ride out the storm. The doctor all but growls, "What could an imbecile like you remind me of?" "Your bodily functions." You reply, continuing on when he doesn't respond, "When I entered the lab it had been a week since you last left." The doctor ground his teeth. This was the tricky part, being enough of a nuisance to get him to leave but not enough of one to get into serious trouble. "I know it's been over a fucking week but I cannot leave at this stage in the procedure. If you had the intellect of a flea you would already know this. A dumbass like you could never understand the work I do here. I refuse to work with a moron of your caliber so get out!"

When you first met the doctor you were vaguely surprised that he cussed. You had always expected a man of such genius to exemplify it in his vocabulary but that is certainly not the case. Now you are just used to it. You continue to wait, ignoring his request. Any insisting on your part has never done any good. For the fourth time since you entered that lab you wonder why you accepted the job here. You were smart enough to make small but valuable breakthroughs of your own and yet you chose to be here. A nameless assistant to a man who was fouler than any polluted water on this world. A, "Hmph" from the doctor breaks you from your line of thought. "I'm taking a break, send food to my room." Dr. Vegapunk states; acting as if his previous outburst hadn't happened. His mood changing like the tides of the New World. "Of course." You say and wait till he's left the lab to head for the kitchens. The life you chose is a greatly underappreciated one but you don't mind that. If you minded anything it would be the namelessness but being nameless was better than being in a specimen jar.


End file.
